IFMAR World's Report from Andy Moore

Mon, 6th August 2012

Once every 2 years the Worlds elite Touring drivers fight it out
to be crowned IFMAR World Champion. This time round we would be
traveling to the fantastic MACH track in Heemstede Holland. The
team had already traveled to the Heemstede track for the official
warm up race 1 month earlier, we were able to learn plenty of setup
information for the new TCX-X and were all confident of strong
finishes.

Practice went well for everyone in the team and we only needed to
make a few small changes to individual setups to find the right
balance on a much warmer track than we had seen at the warm up
race. Moving into qualifying it was clear that with only 2 sets of
tyres being available tyre strategy was likely to be a major factor
in who would make the top 10, along with chance of rain and running
in the wet. Fortunately for myself and Hara our tyre strategy and
the weather were both on our side. Hara taking TQ and me sneaking
into 9th place for the A main. Unfortunately with the bad weather
putting an end to round 5 it left Shin and Teemu an impossible task
to make the final, both finishing up in the B main. The A mains
were very different to any finals I have been in before due again
to the limit on tyres. Only 1 set for all was allowed which meant
some drivers including myself chose to pull off in the 1st main to
save tyres going into the 2nd and 3rd mains. However Hara battled
it out up front with home town driver Jilles Groskamp and was only
denied in the last second due to a last gasp drive for the
finishing line by Jilles which saw him win by less than a 1/10th of
a second. The 2nd main was a tough one for both me and Hara, we
finished up 9th and 4th But Hara was still in with a shout for the
title in leg 3 but needed a little help due to the tie-break
situation which was based on fastest time. He did all he could and
won the final leg but on used tyres wasn't able to run as fast as
Jilles in leg 1 and took overall 2nd place and myself in 8th.
Congratulations to the entire HB/HPI RACING team and support staff
for a fine result at the Worlds, we now look forward to the 1/10th
Scale IFMAR Nitro Touring Car World Championships in Thailand
(http://www.nitrowc2012.com/) and the 1/8th Scale IFMAR
Off Road World Championships in Argentina (http://www.argentina2012wc.com.ar/) !